Investigating the Integrity and Failure Characteristics of Deteriorated Polymeric 3D-Printed Components as Candidates for Structural and Construction Applications

Abstract

This investigation aimed to comprehensively investigate the integrity and failure characteristics of deteriorated polymeric components produced through Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technology. The primary focus was to examine the performance of flawed 3D-printed samples, which were purposely designed and 3D-printed to incorporate a range of crack types and geometric features that were initially designed through CAD. This study adopted two main approaches to deal with the cracks by producing the flaws through design and laser processes. These specimens were subjected to destructive testing to gain valuable insights into the FFF-printed components’ performance and failure characteristics under the tensile mode, a significant concern in engineering applications. A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was employed on the flawed and intact specimens to compare and correlate the experimental results with the simulation results. This study reveals the tested samples’ structural response and failure mechanisms under tensile loading conditions. Exceptionally, it was found that the faulty 3D-printed parts made by the laser process demonstrated less resistance to failure due to disturbing the 3D-printed extruded filament streams. In contrast, the flaws initially produced solely by the 3D printing process showed better resistance to mechanical failure due to the crack-bridging effect. It was observed that there were reductions of 11% and 32% in the failure load of the 3D-printed cracked sample and the laser-cracked samples, respectively, in comparison with the intact one. Additionally, the stress intensity factor showed a decrease of 20% in the laser-cracked sample compared to the 3D-printed one.